As expected, Black Panther crushed the competition on Friday. However, it beat all but the most enthusiastic predictions to earn $75.81 million for the day. Add in 97% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an A+ from CinemaScore, and the film should have good legs over the weekend. On the negative side, it is a monster hit thanks in part to the deafening hype, so that’s going to result in shorter legs.
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I tried to remain cautious in the face of the overwhelming hype surrounding the release of Black Panther. This could be a mistake. It started its domestic box office run with $25.2 million in previews on Thursday, which crushed the $12.7 million Deadpool earned during the beginning of its record-breaking debut weekend. Not only is this the best previews for a Presidents Day debut, it is the best pre-summer preview, topping The Hunger Games’s $19.7 million. It is also the second best for the MCU, just ahead of Civil War’s $25 million mark, and just behind Age of Ultron’s result of $27.6 million. The film’s 97% positive reviews suggest it will have long legs; however, as we’ve seen time and time again, even Award-worthy reviews are almost never a match for an extreme Fanboy Effect. That said, this result is way above the $20 million I was expecting and a $200 million four-day debut is now more likely than not.
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As predicted last week, Black Panther will substantially exceed Disney’s projection from last Thursday of 3,800 theaters on its opening weekend. The studio has announced the film will open in 4,020 locations over the weekend, and it looks set to break all sorts of records when it does so.
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It’s Presidents Day long weekend and there are two-and-a-half films trying to take advantage of the holiday with wide releases. However, the only film opening this weekend that people are actually talking about is Black Panther. This film is earning more buzz than any film opening until Infinity War and is widely expected to break records. Early Man’s reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, but it is just hoping to reach the top five. Finally, there’s Samson, which is only opening semi-wide. This weekend last year was the weekend after Presidents Day long weekend, so it is not a fair comparison and 2018 will crush 2017. Compared to Presidents Day of last year, 2018 will still crush the competition.
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With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try to figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. A lot of people call this Oscar the Pixar Award, and look at that, there’s a Pixar film on this list. Is Coco the overwhelming favorite? Or does another film have what it takes?
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With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try to figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Feature-Length Documentary. This category had an overwhelming favorite, Jane, but then it wasn’t even nominated. This left the category wide open. Has a new favorite emerged? Or is it still a tossup?
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Fifty Shades Freed made its international debut in 57 markets, earning first place in 54 of them. Overall, it earned $96.5 million internationally for a worldwide debut of $135.2 million. The film’s biggest market was Germany, where it earned $10.36 million on 731 screens. It earned similar openings in France ($8.90 million on 700 screens) and the U.K. ($8.22 million in 603 theaters). Add in more first place openings in Italy ($7.29 million on 517 screens); Russia ($6.99 million on 1,430); and Brazil ($6.26 million on 650), and the film was much stronger internationally than domestically. The studio’s share of the worldwide box office is already $60 million, which is more than the film cost to make. Assuming the film gets to $300 million worldwide, which is almost guaranteed at this point, the film will make a healthy profit before it reaches the home market.
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